Cavity lining in primary teeth

Embase, Medline, Cochrane Central, Biomed Central and Open Grey databases and bibliographies of identified studies.

Randomised controlled trials investigating humans with primary caries lesions receiving operative treatment involving caries removal and restoration, with minimum two treatment groups comparing different cavity treatments before restoration (no lining versus lining) were included.

Data were extracted independently by two reviewers and study quality assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Random effect meta-analysis was carried out.

Three studies involving a total of 89 patients were included. All the studies involved primary teeth and were conducted in Brazil. Follow-up periods ranged from 26-53 months. All the studies were considered to be at high risk of bias. Restoring the cavity without lining did not significantly affect the risk of failure. The quality of the evidence was low.

Current evidence does not support strong recommendations to use or not to use liners after caries removal and before restoring cavities. Our findings are restricted to primary teeth after selective excavation, with only one liner (calcium hydroxide) being used for comparison.